Australia, South Africa to share super telescope

Australia and South Africa will share the location for the world's most powerful radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array's scientific consortium announced on Friday.

"We have decided on a dual site approach," said SKA board chairman John Womersley at a press conference held at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, following a meeting of the SKA organisation's members in the Dutch capital.

"We will be installing equipment in both Australia and South Africa and together they will form part of a global observatory."

Both South Africa and Australia were competing to win the $2 billion contract for the SKA, an instrument that will be 50 times more sensitive than today's most powerful radio telescopes.

Scientists hope the SKA will shed light on fundamental questions about the Universe including how it began, why it is expanding and whether it contains life beyond our planet.

The eagerly awaited decision now means that engineers can connect antennas at Australia's core site at Mileura station, about 100 kilometres west of Meekathara in Western Australia.

Other antennae are distributed across Australia and New Zealand.

South Africa's site in the arid Karoo region will now also be connected by a remote link to a network of dishes stretching across southern and eastern Africa and as far away as Ghana.

Its construction is scheduled to start in 2016, becoming fully operational in 2024.

Scientists say the SKA will not only try to solve questions like the physical make-up of the universe; it will also drive a new generation of technologies.

With thousands of antennae collecting information from the sky, the telescope will produce an unimaginable torrent of data - estimated at 10 to 100 times greater than the current global internet data traffic.

The 'brain' of the SKA - a massive supercomputer that will combine the data from each individual telescope to create an image - will need the processing power of 1 billion desktop computers.

The technological demand created by the project is driving the development of high-tech solutions to these challenges, not to mention the many other devices such as radio receivers, amplifiers and the associated electronic systems.

Minister for Science and Technology Chris Evans says the announcement is a great decision for science in Australia.

"It means we can continue to help lead the world in radio astronomy. It means the growth of our scientific expertise," he said.

"This is a $9 billion project over 50 years, and it will be partnered with most of the major countries around the world."